Friday, July 28, 2017

Essential startup tells what does is take to tune an image processing pipeline for smartphone dual camera (RGB + Monochrome):

"Objective tuning is meant to ensure that each camera module sent to production is operating at an acceptable baseline level. It began with picking the correct golden and limit samples from the factory.

The golden samples are the modules whose characteristics most closely align to the average of our camera and the experience that most of our users will have. Once golden samples were collected, we used them to capture a series of images under various laboratory-controlled test conditions. The images from the golden samples were then used to train the ISP to recognize the unique characteristics of those modules. In other words, we taught the ISP to see the world in a certain way. We also tested other limit and random samples, which have different characteristics that are saved in the factory calibration data, to ensure that they are behaving like the golden samples in those scenes too. The objective tuning process lasted three months. By the end, all of our cameras were responding to the predefined lab scenes in an accurate and predictable fashion.

But even when a camera can repeat actions in a lab, it still needs to be taken into the field— because in real life a camera must be able to take the right picture in millions of different scenarios. Subjective tuning is what makes this possible. It is a painstaking, iterative process—but also one I find incredibly rewarding.

Our subjective tuning process began in January 2017, and during that time, we have gone through 15 major tuning iterations, along with countless smaller tuning patches and bug fixes. We have captured and reviewed more than 20,000 pictures and videos, and are adding more of them to our database every day."